Shots Fired in LeDroit Park Sunday 5:30pm – 1 Arrest Made, 2 Handguns Recovered

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by Prince Of Petworth August 24, 2015 at 9:45 am 23 Comments

From MPD:

“At approximately 5:30 PM, this evening [Sunday] we received a call for the sounds of gunshots in the area of 4th and Elm St, N.W.

A quick response by nearby police officers and several citizens who called 911 we were able stop the involved parties.

As a result, we recovered two handguns.”

A resident inquired – “Were arrests made? Were they shooting for fun or in process of other crimes?”

“One arrest at this time. There were no other crimes associated.”

Anony

Thanks for the quick response and results guys!
Shawguy

So now that there’s a $2500 reward for information that results in confiscating an illegal gun, is there the possibility of receiving that for calling in shots fired? How would one go about claiming that reward? I feel like, living in Shaw in the summer, this has the possibility of being a serious incidental income source.
- sam-g
  
  I think if you were able to identify the suspect/ vehicle/ or their address or directly lead to the arrest of the individual and they weren’t caught on scene, then you might be more likely to be eligible for that reward. But calling 911 alone and reporting sound of shots fired without suspect information might not merit a reward since police shot spotter detection can detect gun shots in the city and pin point them to a location. Your information would not be critical to leading to an arrest or capture of an illegal gun owner.
emvee

I really just want to know why there was never a DC alert about this, since there were a TON of folks outside, at the park, going jogging, in this area at 5:30p yesterday.
- Huma
  
  Seconded – I was out of town and saw tweets from neighbours asking why there was police tape blocking off the street — did not get a single DC alert about this. I go to the park every other day where we have our community garden.
  - Huma
    
    I should also add that I went through DC police’s twitter feed in case I missed it, but crickets.
    - Prince Of Petworth
      
      In my experience – they don’t issue alerts if it’s “only” shot fired – ie nobody was hit.
      - Huma
        
        Slow clap for them then — so we’ll only find out when someone is unlucky enough to actually take a bullet.
      - emvee
        
        Well, that’s disconcerting. Thanks for clarifying, though.
      - anonymous
        
        From the alerts that I get- I think they are only issued when there is a lookout/description of a suspect and or vehicle.
      - Prince Of Petworth
        
        often alerts end with “no lookout”
- Bloomingdale Resident
  
  Agreed. We knew something was going on because of the police helicopter aggressively circling the area. But didn’t get an alert and we couldn’t find any information at all on any of the police social media. We were outside and only a couple blocks away so really would have appreciated real time information from the police.
- Krampus
  
  “A quick response by nearby police officers and several citizens who called 911 we were able stop the involved parties.”
  .
  Maybe they don’t send out alerts if there’s nothing specific to look out for. If the situation is quickly resolved then no alert would be necessary.
  - emvee
    
    I mean, there was one shot, and a few minutes later a couple more shots. People should be told when to head inside because, regardless of whether or not someone was hit, there’s still the potential for other people to be hit.
    - Anon
      
      Why do you need the police to tell you to go inside if you heard the gunshots? If I heard gunshots while standing outside my house I wouldn’t be waiting for a tweet to tell me to go inside.
      - emvee
        
        In this particular area, you often play the “firework or gunshot?” game. I wasn’t necessarily waiting for a tweet as I went inside as quickly as I could, but I still think they should be informing people of violence in their neighborhoods regardless of if the bullet hit anyone or not.
    - Krampus
      
      I understand what you’re saying but if you’re the police, how do you determine that there’s a potential for people to be hit and therefore say that people should head inside? They can’t do that simply based on the report of a gunshot, they need to show up and verify that there was an actual gunshot and size up the probability that there will be more. I actually don’t know the details of this case but it sounds as if by the time they had enough info to issue an alert they also had the perps.
  - anon
    
    Agreed; their response was swift and they took care of the incident. I am more than pleased with them tracking down the perps and working the situation rather than tweeting while working it. Once they have things under control then they can provide updates. If there was a threat to the public, I’m sure an alert would have went out. Don’t bust the cops’ balls on this one they caught the guy shortly after. kudos
BSmithDC

Has anyone else noticed one of the things alot of shootings seem to have? They are located in and around the numerous parks (or rec centers) in the neighborhood. It is time for the DPR to finally take a bit of responsibility and work with the MPD on actually policing these sites on a regular basis.

As the father of a 5 year old (who loves the spray park and Common Good City Farm) I find it troubling that there seems to be a bit of a sense of lawlessness as the MPD has not focused on these sites even after shootings like this one. This is not an MPD issue…numerous neighbors have raised this as an issue for over a decade and DPR seems to be tone deaf…
- Anony
  
  Also METRO TRANSIT POLICE
  - Anony
    
    …didn’t finish and pressed send…MTP have authority over all bus stops (something like within 100ft.) They also have different engagement rules (i.e. ability to move loiterers unlike MPD). We should be pushing them to do more. Yes, Georgia and Lamont I’m looking at you
Bob

This happened right next to my house, and I was one of the residents who called 911. There was a single gunshot, followed by a barrage 5 minutes later. The police response was fast and admirable. Just a friendly reminder to call the police when you hear what you think are gunshots. One officer told me that it placed them in the area sooner, possibly leading to the swift arrest and recovery of two weapons.
Anonymous

Isn’t this the corner that woman was mugged at/while being dragged a couple of months ago? Why isn’t there more police presence?

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